- Hey, it's great to have you guys back for week number two
of the message Serious Relationship Goals.
I want to again say thank you to those of you
that are leading life groups,
to those who open up their home
or maybe your meeting in coffee shops or wherever,
you're making a really really big difference.
If you're new to a life group I hope that you're
feeling more welcomed, feeling more loved,
and really growing spiritually
because when we do life together
we just seem to connect with God
and we can be so much stronger as we support each other.
In this week's message we're talking about
the second part of this series, what are we,
what are our relationship goals?
Well we wanna be Christ centered,
we wanna be mission driven, we wanna be devil kicking,
and we are covenant-keeping.
If you have time you might talk about how it went last week
in trying to pray together if you hadn't prayed together
or increasing your prayer life.
This week we're talking about being mission driven
and we looked at the principle,
all the way back to the Garden of Eden,
that whatever God wanted to unite
the devil always wanted to divide.
Our enemy is the thief, he comes to steal,
kill, and destroy, his primary weapon is to lie.
The very first thing that the enemy did
in the Garden of Eden through the form of a serpent
was to isolate or to separate Eve from Adam,
took her off to the side and started lying to her,
did God really say, placing a seed of doubt in her mind
and it was that division.
This may not be easy to talk about but if you are married
what I'd love you to talk about in an appropriate way is
what is a category in your marriage that's often divisive?
What is it in your marriage that
you find yourself fighting about more often than not.
If you're not married
we know that our enemy wants to distract us from God,
let's talk about that, what is in your life often,
a distraction from the things that matter most.
If you're married, what is it that's divisive?
It could be that there's tension around money.
I know in our house sometimes we have different philosophies
on how we're gonna discipline our kids
or how we're going to help them grow
or stretch them spiritually.
It could be over schedules,
it could be over how often you kiss or don't kiss
or whatever you wanna say about it
but as openly as you can be in an appropriate way
let's talk about what is it that tends to
divide in your marriage or if you're not married
what is it this tends to distract you
from the things of God.
So go ahead and stop and let's talk openly
and believe God's gonna do something special today.
I like the verse in Amos where Amos asks a question,
can two walk together unless they agree?
When you talk about division or unity
Jesus in the New Testament he talked about division
and he said this, that a house divided against itself
cannot stand and I think that's one of the reasons why
our enemy tries to do anything possible
to divide us in our relationships
so that we lose the power of unity
and the strength that God wants us to have.
Let's talk about the opposite of division
and let's talk about unity for a minute.
What is it that unifies you in your relationship?
Maybe if you're not married you can talk about it this way,
what is it that unifies you with
some other followers of Christ,
what are you passionate about?
In the message we we looked at
the two most common unifying forces on planet earth,
what will unite people?
Well a common mission unites people and a common enemy.
The good news is for us
that we actually have both of them together.
That we have a common enemy if we're followers of Christ
and we have a mission, in fact,
the last thing Jesus told us was
to go into all the world and make disciples.
Baptizing in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit is all about sharing Jesus.
In other words, you could almost imagine God saying,
I gave you one assignment, and he really did.
He wants us to be missional in how we live.
Jesus took the first mission trip,
he came from heaven to earth to show the love of God
and now we, empowered by the Holy Spirit,
are to do the same thing.
Before we talk about specifics in mission
let's talk about our heart.
Some of us we care more about some things than other things,
what's in your heart that tends to unite you?
Hopefully it's more than having a nice house,
more than your favorite sports team,
hopefully it's some cause, some opportunity.
It could be helping children, it could be helping the poor,
it could be teaching kids to read,
it could be overcoming poverty,
it could be helping save lives,
it could be any number of different things
but I want you to think openly, remember I told you,
this one's gonna take a little more work.
What is it that tends to unite you?
What do you hate, what do you love,
what is it that unites you in marriage
or unites with other followers of Christ
to make a difference in this world missionally?
Okay, well I hope that was some good discussion
and like I said in the message,
this one's gonna take some work
and this application question is
one of the more difficult ones
but I'm go ahead and just put it out there directly
and hopefully it'll stir you, shake you,
do something in you,
and the question is really, really simple,
what is your mission?
in this season of life
what is it that's captured your heart,
what are you about outside of
just paying the bills and surviving
and having a better job and raising kids and such,
what is your mission?
Want you to think about this and I'll acknowledge too
I believe that your mission and kind of your current calling
can and probably will change and evolve
as you go through life.
Amy and I when we first got married
we were crazy passionate about helping people in the church,
it was was our calling, we were in single adult ministry
and this is what we did together.
We were really, really passionate
about helping people prepare for marriages
because we had dozens and dozens of marriages coming
all the time, it was like a marriage factory.
Tons of great godly people and so our big driving force
was helping people prepare for godly marriages.
At this point in our lives we have
other things that were focused on more so.
Amy's really involved in helping
women who are coming out of really dire situations
and that's a relatively new calling.
It's more of her heart's passion but it's something
that I'm standing with her with full support,
bringing wisdom, putting my own finances behind it
joyfully, we do that together,
and trying to help her build it.
And so that's that's kind of newer in her life.
For me it's a little bit newer in teaching on leadership
and she's fully supportive
and then there's some things that we actually do together
and we could tell you in a few sentences.
Missionally here's some things
we're really passionate about right now.
So again, this can take some work
and you may not get it right just this time
but I want you thinking about it.
You exists for more than just your own benefit.
God has given you gifts, talents, and passions.
When you got married
you got married because you can serve God better together.
If you are married let's talk about it.
In this season what's the driving mission in your life?
Doesn't have to be that you started a woman's home,
it could be that you're helping love at people at church,
your supporting, you're in the two-year old room every week,
you're doing something outside of yourself.
If you're not married you don't need to wait
until you're married to have a mission.
You don't need a spouse to have a mission.
What are you passionate about?
What is your mission today, let God use you.
He gave you gifts, passions, and talents to glorify Him.
We're all called to make disciples, how are you doing it?